Poetry:
Rajeshwar Karki
A Villain’s Island and a Mirror’s Tale
The village
I roosted in for years
Is itself in nature’s ideal isolation now.
In the island,
Even the sun, the moon and the stars enter
Only after a dive in the ocean
The earth and the sky here
Rinse themselves by diving in water from time to time
The villages and the streets here
Smirk in their own pristine beauty
The woods in the island
Are in the frenzy of their own tantalizing fragrance
The birds croon their own songs in tune with the ocean’s notes
As though the island itself
Were the highest crown of universal beauty!
These days, in this silent and beautiful island,
People, in huge crowds are entering even without a shower
A few, beset by injustice,
And others, unable to enjoy in their locations.
A few of these people are entering
Carrying in hand passports of different avatars
A few apparent messiahs of religion with wicket minds
Others, messiahs of doctrines specialized in dismantling moral bars
And yet others, messiahs in combat dress, skilled at camouflaging crimes
While a few, like stones, are messiahs of pain
Who have bumped themselves against boulders of their own selfish motifs
All of them have emerged
As avatars of heroes all over the island.
I, on my part, am proving a villain
In the midst of these heroes
Like an old hearsay
Or, like the lone Brihashpati, who is proven wrong.
To get free from this villainous apparel
To which other islands shall I retreat
And stay in isolation?
Wherever I go
Corona is ready at the reception;
Inside, there is always a regime of messiahs
Who are grandfathers of the messiahs roosted in the island.
But the island has a secrecy of its own!
In the mirror set there—
The hero-incarnate grand messiahs appear like villains
And I, proven a villain, look liked a hero.
Like always, I shall now erect
A wall around the island
Not with mirrors that show externalities
But with those that show the ultimate truth
So that, seeing their real faces,
Even the neighbors get ashamed.
Translation: Mahesh Paudyal
